Apple is providing further details of its previously announced Mac Pro line. The cylindrical workstations are formally scheduled to ship in December. Apple has also revised its MacBook Pro laptop line with new processors.

The Mac Pro stands at just 9.9 inches but sports up full workstation-class innards, including multi-core Intel Xeon CPUs (up to 12 cores per CPU) and dual AMD FirePro GPUs.

The 15-inch model runs on a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (2.3 GHz in the base model, but up to 2.6 GHz in a custom configuration) and Nvidia GeForce GT 750M discrete graphics with 2 GB of video memory.

They also offer:

PCIe-based flash storage;

802.11ac WiFi;

Dual Thunderbolt 2 ports; and

Improved battery life over previous models.

The new MacBook Pros are available now. The 13-inch model starts at $1,299. The 15-inch model starts at $1,999.

David Nagel is editorial director, education for 1105 Media's Public Sector Media Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal. A 22-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art and business publications.